CCODP out to build youth movement

By ART BABYCH
Canadian Catholic News
Montreal

In a report to delegates attending CCODP's triennial orientation assembly June 15, Corkery noted that a special grant of $85,000 from the Canadian International Development Agency will help the Catholic agency prepare a major bilingual exhibit, The Earth is For All, inviting youth to join the work of Development and Peace.

"Our forums will bring together about 20,000 young people to engage with partners from South Africa, India and Peru, and will be enlivened by music and 'walking corn,'" she said. Two videos will be made from the events - one for use with youth groups next year and another for television broadcast.

As well, a booklet has been produced on how to start a Development and Peace group on campus, which will be launched at World Youth Day and then sent to all Catholic universities for September.

Corkery also reported that francophone and anglophone youth assistants have been hired to reach out to youth in new ways as the CCODP sets out to "reinvigorate our organization, and our movement by re-rooting our work in the spirituality that inspires it and by welcoming in more young people as well as visible and ethnic minorities."

The CCODP, founded 35 years ago, is the international development arm for the Catholic Church in Canada.

Corkery said the CCODP's solidarity has two major elements - educating and mobilizing in the North for global change, and raising money to help people in the South work for change.

Share Lent, the annual fundraising campaign of the CCODP has "taken on new power with the growth in monthly donations," said Corkery, adding that "planned giving and inviting people to put our work in their wills, is a growing area of our work."

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